Impact: The Effects of a Rich Information Resource on Alaskan Eskimo Students and Their Teachers. An Evaluation of the Bethel Regional Library/Media Center.

Streiff, Paul R.; Streiff, Virginia

Evaluation objectives were to assess the quality of the Bethel Alaska Regional Library/Media Center as an exemplary operation (the Center was established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Bethel Agency in 1971 to serve federally operated schools in Southwest Alaska) and to measure the impact of the Center's services on its Eskimo elementary student users. The sample selected for most of the data-gathering consisted of 479 students and 36 teachers from 12 schools (identified as high or low use institutions), though in some instances students and teachers from all 32 of the area's schools were surveyed. In an effort to distinguish between the effects of library use and the effects of other variables upon the user, the following data sources were utilized: (1) the proposal for continued funding under Title III of the Elementary Secondary Education Act; (2) library use records from each of the sample schools; (3) Reading Preference Questionnaire (fourth and fifth graders); (4) Teacher Background Questionnaire; (5) Library Media Questionnaire; (6) informal interviews; (7) Library Media Use Questionnaires; (8) cloze tests (N=479); (9) Metropolitan Achievement Test (1971-72, 1974-75, and national comparisons). Statistical analysis revealed that the Center was unquestionably an exemplary resource and its impact upon the Eskimo student user was beneficial. (JC)